Of Dragons And Elves
by Keisuke Sora
Summary: Eragon has been given the task of exploring the unknown lands to the north of Alagaësia. The Fellowship of the Ring is chasing a group of orcs in the south of Middle Earth. What happens when the encounter each other? If you don't like, then don't read...
1. Eragon, Dragon Rider!

It was a simple thing really. Eragon and Saphira were only meant to fly as far north as the continent would allow. They would then report their findings to Nasuada and Islanzadì, take a break for a week and return home. Nothing too difficult. It was all very straightforward.

Things went terribly wrong just past Du Weldenvarden. The forest ended very abruptly and dropped away to sheer rocks ending in what was once a great ocean but now seemed to be a deserted wasteland. Eragon had contacted Islanzadì immediately and told her that it seemed to stretch on for miles.

"I will relay this to Nasuada," She had said, "In the meantime, I suggest you wait where you are for further instruction."

Eragon had replied with a curt, "Yes, Your Majesty," and settled in for the night. The day's flight had been long and hard and both Eragon and Saphira needed a good rest. There had been no edible plants to be found so both dragon and Rider had had to settle for a couple of large deer. Eragon thoroughly cooked his, rubbing it all over with the contents of a sizable box of herbs that Orik had given him before he left Tronjheim. He savoured the tender and juicy meat, for he rarely ate it, especially in such quantities.

Afterwards, he sat with a full belly against Saphira's warm underside, listening to her contented hum and pondering their current situation.

On one hand, they hadn't met anything hostile yet.

On the other, the lands beyond were an unfamiliar territory with who knew what kinds of perils.

_Go to sleep, little one. All will be well in the morning,_ Saphira had said, before padding off to hide for the night. And Eragon had smiled and dropped off to sleep, right where she had left him.

* * *

Eragon was roused in the night when something hard and heavy landed on his chest. He felt the familiar coldness of the flat of a blade being pressed against his neck and knew not to move a muscle.

"You will stand up and clasp your hands behind your head. If you move so much as an inch, you will be killed," A voice hissed in his ear.

Eragon did what it asked without complaint. He glanced in Saphira's direction and found pretending to be asleep, belly up. He quickly concocted a few spells to protect her fleshy underside.

He risked a look at his captor. The man was rugged and looked to be in his mid twenties. He had a scruff of beard climbing up his neck and cold, blue eyes. He was wearing a black travelling cloak over top of classy armour that even the dwarves would have a hard time replicating. He had a bow and quiver of feathered arrows on his back, an elegant sword at his left hip and, concealed in his sleeve, another dagger that Eragon could just make out the contours of.

"Let's have a look at him, then," A voice shouted in a silky tone.

Eragon quickly sent a warning to Sapphira, _Do not move unless I tell you to._ He could feel her worry and anger mixing with his but she obeyed, nonetheless.

"What is your name, boy?" The first man asked.

"Eragon. I am a traveller," He replied, trying to sound as scared as possible. It was hard to be when you knew that you had a two ton dragon backing you up.

"Interesting name. You're not from these parts are you? Are you human?"

He almost laughed at that. As it was, he let a tiny snort escape, "Yes, sir. I am as human as you are," The man gave him a puzzled expression, "Ah yes, the ears. You see, where I am from, a bit of very rare magic was preformed on me that removed an impeding scar from my back and gave me powers like no other human."

The man scowled, "Please elaborate." _You can come out now, Saphira. But slowly. We don't want to scare them away, _Eragon watched as Saphira stood and traversed the short distance. The men's eyes widened and they backed away, wary of her. Eragon laughed and hopped nimbly onto her saddle, "I am a Dragon Rider. Eragon Shadeslayer, at your service.


	2. Last Free Dragon and Rider

_"I am a Dragon Rider. Eragon Shadeslayer at your service."_

The two men stared in stunned amazement at the boy sitting on the back of the fabled creature.

Eragon now realized that one was a fair haired elf and the man who had held the knife to his throat was really a lot older than he looked.

There were a lot more people in the area than he had first glimpsed, all of which were cowering in fear. It seemed there was a dwarf, an elf, four children and two other men.

_Introduce yourself, Saphira._ They all cringed in fear when they heard the voice of the boy ringing out in their heads. Saphira obliged, _I am Spahira Brightscales and if I had not woken up than you would have killed the last free dragon in __Alagaësia, for my life is tied to Eragon's in ways you cannot possibly immagine._

"It can talk!" One of the small people had shouted. What Eragon had first taken to be small children were really, now that he looked properly, very short men. Each wore no shoes and had very stout bodies that seemed to be perfect for digging under ground.

"Of course she can talk," Eragon said indignantly, "She is as smart as," Saphira let out a growl, "If not smarter," he amended, "Than anyone in this clearing!"

The elf stepped forward, a look of unabashed awe on his perfect face, "I am Legolas. A wood elf from the northern regions of Middle earth. It is with extreme pleasure that we greet you, Saphira Brightscales and Eragon Shadeslayer, and welcome you to travel with us to a safer place to talk of our adventures."

_It seems that all elves are just as gracious as the elves of our land. Thank you for your generosity but we must stay the night. We are waiting from an emissary from our liegelord, Nasuada._

"Then, O dragon, we shall bed with you tonight."

Eragon smiled at the refined language and nodded to him, "Your companionship is most welcome, Legolas of the north. What are all of your names," Eragon asked, gesturing to the assembled company.

One of the small people stepped forward, "I am Frodo Baggins. A hobbit of The Shire in the north-eastern quarter of Mid-Earth. These are my friends, Samwise Gamgee, Merriadoc Brandywine and Perrigrin Took."

The man with the extensive weaponry stepped forward, "I am Aragorn. You may also know me as Strider for the time being. Here is Gimli, the dwarf," Gimli tipped the axe that hung at his waist.

The last man and least impressive of the group was a withered looking old man wearing a grey traveling cloak and a wide brimmed, pointed had a long, white beard and crinkles around his eyes that spoke of smiles, "And I, my friends, am Gandalf the White. A wizard from the north-western regions." Eragon started. He had been taught by Brom that if he were ever to run into a wizard, he was to flee immediately. Saphira read his panic and hissed at the old man. A grin flitted across his face, "You have nothing to worry about, Eragon Bromsson and Saphira Vervadasdaughter. I am neither friend nor enemy until we get some good food into our stomachs. Our company has been traveling for some days and had naught to eat but lembas." Eragon laughed, relaxing a bit. The word meant bread in the ancient language.

"You are well recieved," Eragon preformed the universal gesture of peace in the language of the elves of Alagaësia and hopped down from Saphira's back. She touched her nose gently to his forehead and breathed a clouud of steam over him, cleaning his skin of any accumulated dirt. He scratched behind her jaw for a moment before he noticed that Legolas was watching him intently.

"How can I help you," He asked, opening his mind to sense the other's intentions. He found a solid wall behind the facade. Legolas recoiled in shock.

"What are you," He asked, fear and awe evident in his voice, "You seem to be neither human nor elf, yet you are certainly not a dragon or an orc or a dwarf or a hobbit or any of the short folk. You are able to talk through the mind touch and you ride a dragon. You leave me drawing up a blank."

Eragon laughed. "You are right about some of that. The connection that Saphira have had since before either of our births was predetermined by unknown forces. It links us mentally and physically and in other ways that not even we can dream of. So in essence, I am a human and a dragon. It would take a long time to fully explain the sequence of events that led to the Dragon Rider pact so I will explain it very briefly," His conversation with the young elf had been heard by the others of the company who had assembled around the two, "Thousands of years ago, there was a great war between the elves and dragons, long before humans or urgals arried in Alagaësia. The elves believed that all dragons were savage brutes that needed to be eradicated. The dragons believed the same of the elves. One day, an elf, young by even their standards, named Eragon, found an abandoned dragon egg. He raised it in secret and later showed to both races that they could get along, that they could cooperate. The Rider pact was formed first with the elves who gained superior physical and mental abilities because of the self sustaining magic imbued into the contract. When humans landed in Alagaësia, hundreds of years later, they too were adopted into it and gained abilities similar to that of the elves, though the would always be the most beautiful of humans or the most rugged of elves. The dwarves were never added, nor did they care to be. They were always creatures of the earth."

"As well they should be," Gimli added, earning a few chuckles.

"And thus the Dragon Riders were created. I could go into a lot more detail than that but if I did, we would still be sitting here next fall."

The company sat in silence, absorbing Eragon's narrative. Pippin spoke up first, "We have a dragon, but he's wild. His name's Smaug."

Saphira let out a roar so fierce, the entire group jumped in shock. Eragon felt her joy reverberating through the air and had to close his mind almost completely to keep from getting drunk off of it. She raised her wings and shot a jet of white flames toward the sky and gave one more powerful growl, then lay down and started kneading the earth with her massive paws, _Long have I wished to meet a wild dragon and long have I thought that none were in existence. I must meet this Smaug. Eragon, we must meet him._

A thrumming filled the air, causing their skulls to vibrate.

"It seems you won't have to wait," Gandalf said, standing up and taking a defensive stance.

A massive, black head rose over the crest of the hill and glared at them. It spotted Saphira and it's eyes widened to the size of platters, "Another dragon. A real dragon. I am not alone."


	3. A NOTE TO READERS PLEASE DO NOT DISMISS

Atra esterní ono thelduin, mor'ranr lífa unin hjarta onr, un du evarínya ono varda, fricai iet!

Thank you so much for keeping up with this story and watching it and adding it to your favourites and such! Your reviews mean the world to me, truly.

Just recently, I was taking a look over some of my unfinished works (and, barzûl! what a lot I have...) and I decided to get back into the habit of updating this one for it has received a surprising amount of attention. Not that I am not extremely pleased, just most of that is shock for, as most writers know, your most severe critics are yourselves, and the quality of my writing depends entirely on how I feel about my plot elements and characters, etcetera.

Regardless, I just wanted to say that I will be completely reworking this story from a slightly different angle, including, but not limited to, removing the presence of Smaug the dragon. It was with some brutal plot twisting/mangling/destroying/stabbing on my part that he even made it into the story and, with some prompting from a (rightfully) concerned fan, I have decided to save you the extreme mind-fuck of outright removing him, be it through means of arcane nature or just killing him off somehow, and just completely redesign the whole damn thing to my liking.

Terribly sorry if this displeases anyone, for that was not my intent, but this one just wouldn't let me alone...

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass, un atra guliä un ilian tauthr ono!

jeeg94

P.S This message will be left up in place of chapter three for as long as I deem necessary so do not ply me with complaint after complaint. I truly will not tolerate it.

P.P.S Translations of the ancient language in this note can be found in the glossary at the end of _Eldest_ but if anyone is really that hardcore and wants to PM me about them, I will not complain.


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